Ghana went to the polls in their second round run-off between the government candidate Nana Akufo-Addo and opposition candidate John Atta Mills. It appears that Atta Mills has won a narrow victory in Ghana. More from Bloomberg News:
John Atta Mills won Ghana’s presidency in yesterday’s runoff election, securing the right to decide how income from recent oil discoveries is spent, results collated by Joy FM radio station showed.
Atta Mills, head of the National Democratic Congress party, garnered 4.36 million votes, or 50.6 percent, from 222 of 230 constituencies, the Accra-based radio station said on its Internet site. Nana Akufo-Addo, candidate for the New Patriotic Party, polled 4.25 million votes, or 49.4 percent, Joy’s data showed. The radio station said it collated results from polling stations.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana, while not declaring a winner, said on its Web site today that Atta Mills had received 4.1 million votes, or 52.1 percent, to 3.7 million for Akufo- Addo with 200 constituencies counted.
As president, Atta Mills, 64, will take control of the world’s second-biggest cocoa grower and Africa’s No. 2 gold producer, as well as have oversight of newly discovered oil reserves, which U.K. explorer Tullow Oil Plc expects to begin extracting by 2010. He has pledged to cut poverty and help consumers cope with higher fuel and food prices. Atta Mills was runner up in the last two elections.
“This has been a very credible process,” John Stremlau, who led an observer delegation from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, said by telephone from Accra. The intensity of the runoff means “it is going to be difficult for the victor to be magnanimous and the loser to be generous.”
On Friday, January 2, 2009 at 7:30 PM, the San Francisco chapter of Progressive Perspectives will present a lecture by Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research and one of the country’s leading progressive economists. Mr. Baker’s lecture is entitled Meltdown: The Implosion of the American Economy, Why the Bubble Burst.
Mr. Baker first predicted the collapse of the housing bubble and the ensuing economic collapse in 2002. He also served on Representative John Conyers staff as an economic adviser and helped draft HR 676, the single-payer bill.
The lecture is at ILWU Local 34, 4 Berry Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. Suggested donation is $10.00.
ILWU Local 34 is near AT&T Park in the South Beach section of the city.
It’s not easy to find the right words and when it comes to the Israel-Palestinian conflict a misplaced word can set off a minefield even on a progressive blog not to mention this is a subject seemingly beyond my comprehension at this point or at the very least my attention span. Haven’t we seen this all before?
Instead of my own nebulous views, I’ll offer the words of others who I think make points worth reflecting upon.
We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more – providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force.
Ever since 1948, we’ve been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis – just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist “death wagon” will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be “liberated”. And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise “restraint” – as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas’s home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel’s anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas’s anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which … See what I mean? Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and … Got it? And we demand security for Israel – rightly – but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was “under siege” – as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv.
The My Lai massacre in Vietnam has long been considered the worst killing of civilians by US soldiers and has been the subject of much soul searching over the years. Members of the platoon responsible are now in their sixties and some who have not spoken publicly have felt the need to clear their consciences. Al Jazeera goes to the hamlet, speaks to the survivors and explores how the region has and has not changed.
Since the beginning of the year over 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza had fallen in Israel. Israel chose to act at this juncture after preparing this assault for the past six months. Per the comments of the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, the operations in Gaza are a “war to the bitter end” with Hamas.